The Glad Snow Flake

The clouds had come thick in the sky today, it was as if a very white and grey blanket was covering everything above.
It was very cold as the winter had come heavy this year, with short days, and very few of them, that the people on this small city, could have said that they have seen the sun.
The fires were lit in all houses, and their flames were glowing constantly giving all the rooms, a beautiful red and yellow colour. Even the most poor of the people had a fire to burn, and everyone was gathered around it after work for warmth.
Roxani was sitting too by the big stove in the sitting room, her book on her lap, reading one of her favourite tales that of the little princess who the bad fairy had transformed into a frog before her godmother, the angel Ami, turned her back into a beautiful girl, and drove the bad fairy away from her forever.
Tap, tap, tap, a small noise was heard.
Roxani looked around her in the room, to see from where the noise was coming, but could not find anything.
Tap, tap, tap was heard again.
The little girl, raised her eyes around the room once more, anxious to find now about the noise.
Tap, tap, tap.
The light noise came again, but this time Roxani decided to abandon her book at the chair, and swiftly she went around the room to find out more about the noise.
She looked near the stove, and the cupboard, the chairs, and the sofa. She even went to look under the big lamp at a side table, but she could not find anything.
Tap, tap, tap, the noise was heard again. Roxani approached carefully the window.
It was very cold outside, and the heat of the room has covered the glass of the window with a thick mist. The girl put out her little hand to clear some of it and she looked outside. The sky was grey, and the trees at the garden and the park, had lost now all their leaves, one could watch their branches as they were stretching out without any colour.
Roxani looked at them very sad, as she liked these trees when they were full of leaves, and when the autumn was coming they were all taken that beautiful yellow and red colour.
Tap, tap, tap.
Roxani could now hear the light noise very near her. She cleared more mist from the glass of the window, and she looked outside.
In the stillness of the cold afternoon, suddenly the girl saw small, white flakes falling from the sky, one of them tapping quietly, as if she wanted to come inside, the window.
‘Ah, ‘ said the girl, ‘how pretty you are snow flake,’ and she rushed to open the window to see the flake better. Then, she stretched her hand to her, and the snow flake came quietly to sit on her finger.
Roxi closed quickly the window, as she had opened it, in case and her mother had come into the room and scold her for letting the cold coming in. She took the flake to her chair, and sat down.
‘It’s lovely here, ‘ said the flake, ‘you don’t know how much I longed to come inside a room.’
‘But you are a snow flake,’ said the girl, ‘shouldn’t you be outside with your other sisters now?’
‘No, not really,’ said the flake, ‘you see we come down together from the sky, but when we reach the earth, each one of us goes to stay wherever she likes, others go and stay at the tiles of the roof, or at the fence of the garden, or the sill of the windows, or the bushes, or the branches of the trees, the pile of wood outside. Me, I only wanted to come inside a room, and feel what warmth is like, and also meet you.’
‘ But you will melt, ‘ said Roxani, it’s hot here.’
‘I will stay I told you, to meet you, and your friend, ‘ said again the snow flake, and she pointed to the bubble that Roxani had not noticed entering the window with the snow flake.
‘She told me that you are a nice, little girl, and I wanted to see you for myself.’
‘Where have you met the bubble? ’ asked Roxani now.
‘Oh, she came to meet me as I was coming down from the sky. She told me that you had never seen closely a snow flake, so that’s why I am here.’
‘Oh bubble, ’said Roxi now to her old friend, ’you should not have done this, the poor snow flake will melt now with this heat here and she will disappear forever.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said the bubble, one way or another she would have melt anyway. At least now you have met one another.’
Roxani looked at the snow flake sitting at her finger, sad.
‘I will take you again out of the window,’ she decided, ‘you will find your other sisters again and you will freeze, this way I can keep you forever.’
‘No, ‘ said the snow flake, ‘I want to stay here,’ and she looked around her, ‘I like the warmth of this room, and the flames of the burning stove. I don’t want to make people cold.
‘You see,’ said the bubble, ‘she is happy. Look at her more closely, she is pretty, isn’t she?’
Roxani brought her finger with the snow flake on the top, close to her eyes, and looked at her carefully. The snow flake was like a beautiful star, only even prettier. She smiled happily, and scared in case the snow flake melts quickly, she went again near the window, where the cold air coming from outside and the draft, might have helped her to live longer.
Her other sisters outside were falling more and more from the sky, sitting wherever they liked it on the earth, forming a thick white layer of snow.
Roxani turned again to look at the small snow flake on her finger, however all it had remained there was but a thin streak of water, falling in drops on the girl’s dress.
‘Oh bubble,’ said Roxani to her old friend, ‘the snow flake has melted already, and she looked very sad at her empty finger.
‘Yet, ‘ replied the bubble, and approached the girl, ‘ you see she wanted to see what her sisters never will, the warmth of a room, and she wanted to meet you.’
‘But now she is gone, said the girl, ‘and I will never see her again.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said the bubble, ‘she was happy for what she had seen, and she was a glad snow flake. Look, look outside, ‘and she pointed to the other snow flakes falling from the sky, ‘none of them will be as happy as she was, because they are all going to give people cold, and snow, and ice, but she only has given you joy and happiness, as this was but a very glad snow flake, and you have to be pleased for that.’
Roxani looked again outside, ‘ yes, I think you are right bubble,’ she said, and she left the window again and went to pick up her book by the fire.

Despina Katsirea.

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